BYD earns net profit of 361m RMB in 2014 H1, falling over 15%

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 29) - BYD has recently released its sales performance report for the first half of the year at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Beijing Times reported today. According to the report, the manufacturer earned a net profit of 361 million RMB ($58.61m), falling 15.52 percent from the 426.8 million RMB ($69.24m) it earned in the first half of 2013.

Despite the lackluster performance, BYD's new energy vehicle division, which is responsible for manufacturing pure electric and plug-in hybrid sedans and buses, saw its income grow tenfold. Officials from BYD explained that this growth was due in no small part to favorable government policies aimed at encouraging new energy vehicle sales in China.

However, sales of the manufacturer's traditional fuel-powered automobiles fell 27 percent, with only 180,000 being sold over the first half of this year. The amount of income generated by these sales over the first half of the 2014 totaled 12.65 billion RMB ($2.05b), down 7.45 percent from a year ago. BYD officials explained that this decline in sales is the main reason the company's overall net profits decreased. They added that the Chinese own brand automobile market as a whole has been suffering this year.

According to Li Yunfei, the deputy general manager of BYD's automobile sales subsidiary company, BYD will release two brand new automobile models, the S7 midsize SUV (pictured) and G5 compact, during the latter half of the year. BYD will also make some modifications to its sales strategies. Mr. Li believes that BYD will recover over the latter half of the year, adding that he expects the manufacturer's revenue growth for 2014 to be more or less similar to the previous year's.